The Amazing Survivor Race

And so they return, two of my favorite reality TV shows, Survivor and The Amazing Race.

First Survivor, which for the first time is being filmed in HD. Africa never looked so beautiful. Remember that on this show attitude, smarts and athleticism will get you everywhere. Which is why we said goodbye to Michelle (bad attitude) and Gillian (no athleticism at all) on opening night.

My favorites? Gay-boy Charlie of course, and his BFF Marcus. Physics teacher Bob seems to be quite a hoot, and though Randy is depressing, he knows how to to play the game. None of the chicks really float my boat, but you have to admit that anybody named Sugar has to be kind of fun. And I think she is and will be.

As for the best show on TV, The Amazing Race: Beekeepers/hippies Anita and Arthur we heardly knew ye. From Los Angeles to Brazil was as far as they made it, faltering at the Detour.

Their choices: Hard Way Up or Soft Way Down. Teams could either climb a stone staircase on their hands and knees (ouch) and be asked a mystery question at the top, or teams can choose to climb down a cargo net attached to a building that’s 240 feet down. Every team chooses the cargo net but the frats, Andrew and Dan. They preferred to wreck their knees by climbing the stairs, and they got the question at the top wrong: how many stairs were there? Back to the bottom, where they have to reclimb.

So back to the beehives with ye Anita and Arthur after taking a looooong time to climb the Soft Way Down.

My favorites here? The frat boys and the nerds, Mark and Bill. I can already tell I'm not going to like the Southern Belles (Marissa and Brooke -- why do we have to have dumb blondes on every TAR? But I digress). The Tina half of Ken and Tina is already annoying, too. And the brother/sister duo of Nick and Starr are just a little too touchy-feely for me.

So away we go. See you next week.

Anita and Arthur photo courtesy CBS